May 10: Day 13, L'Ampolla-Barcelona

The original plan for today was to go 5hours to Montblanc for the rest day at the end of the week. But an old friend lives in Barcelona, and this was the closest the route would come, so it was a great opportunity to meet up. Komoot said Barcelona was 176km, 10h40 ... which is a stretch. But it was relatively flat; and I could take the next day as a rest day!

So I decided to go for it. Route looks OK, apparently it's on asphalt almost all the way: even with the usual skepticism it looks possible.

Elevation profile for the day. Nothing worrying here … the max height is 100m so it’s basically flat, right?

I was on the road before 8:15am, so when gravel roads and other delays did appear, I’d have as much daylight as possible to deal with them.

First of all: despite the elevation profile looking quite flat, it was quite not flat. The morning was spent going up or down slopes; maybe the graph is some fractal thing where it looks smooth when viewed as a whole but turns into a sawtoothed mess when viewed up close.

But the road surface was good so it wasn’t too much work. After leaving L’Ampolla it ran between the coast and the railway line. I happily zipped along, trying to get a photo that made it look like I was beside the sea, when it suddenly went down a very steep hill into the best corner:

Undisturbed sand, uninterrupted ocean - and then the road goes into a stylish tunnel!

Not so fast. I checked the route and it didn’t use the tunnel: it actually continued along the beach, slightly left of center. The sign said “walking track”, seems reasonable.

From left to right: the sun, already full blast at 815 this morning. Railway and ocean, and a good flat cycling road. An unreasonable walking track.

The track had quite a step up. Just a short scramble for a walker, but to get the bike up I needed to unhook all the bags and carry them past, then lift the bike along the rock, then reassemble everything without losing anything over the cliff. If there were a few more of these, I wouldn’t make it to Barcelona… the map showed a quick route up to a nearby road, so I took that. There was an unpleasantly steep gravel slope: best technique is to put on both brakes, step up to good footing, then lift the bike to a new spot and repeat; but with a bit of effort and a bit of harsh language it got there. No pictures as I was not in the mood, unfortunately.

The route continued parallel to the motorway, changing sides from time to time. It was mostly asphalt - but there were long sections of gravel, which no-one will be surprised by.

From left to right: Surprise, not asphalt! This 4WD track is a legit part of today’s route. A cyclepath so nice I got a photo. Back at the sea having recovered my mood enough to fake a smile.

The gravel sections weren’t too bad. But this part of the route went from one seaside settlement to another, and Komoot would try to take me down to the seaside at each one. One was unavoidable (hence the strained seaside photo above) but for the rest I thought I’d make better time on the parallel road so that’s where I stayed. One of these diversions was so memorable I wish I’d taken a photo: while on a gravel road Komoot announced “left at fork”, which meant going down a precipitously steep slope, presumably to a tunnel under the motorway to visit the sea. I didn’t even slow down. (Wish I’d taken a photo though.)

After the walking track delays I was especially motivated to take the most efficient way. There’s a road called N-340a which I ended up on; it had a nice big space for cycles and light traffic: Komoot would try to divert me to the seaside at least once an hour but I would just stay on it.

It was quite a blustery day as well. At times there were heavy headwinds, sometimes no headwind - meaning it must have been a good tailwind. Sometimes it would unexpectedly blast me sideways; I quickly got the hang of leaning into it so it didn’t push me sideways; there’s not much space between the road on one side and the barrier/ditch on the other.

From left to right: The seaside route, in Cambrils. Bambu Bar view. Lunch!

I stopped in at the Bambu Bar in Cambrils, which was excellent! It’s run by a nice French lady, who used to do a lot of world travelling, including hitchhiking from Sydney to Darwin and living for six months in an Aboriginal colony. Unfortunately I still had 100km to go so I couldn’t stop for long.

If you’re in Cambrils, go there: Bambu Bar, Av. de la Diputació, n38, 43850 Cambrils, Tarragona.

From left to right: Spanish sea views. More sea views. Ferrariland - a real thing, also in Cambrils! Yet more sea views. And more.

I was on a cyclepath for this section, which can be fast - but only if there’s no people around. This had busy patches, at one stage there were people selling things on both sides, and the path was filled with customers, so it was walking speed only.

From left to right: Not l'Arc de triomphe. Route goes offroad. Route gets rougher. Route gets even worse; this may look like a nice seaside surface but there was a malicious headwind, coming directly from Madrid. Headwinds don’t normally show up in photos; but here it is: I was going left.

I was still on schedule though; unless there was a big delay I should get to Barcelona before 9. But the headwind was nasty; given how nice and flat it was I’d have liked to use the top gears but because of the wind I was pushing along in a middle gear with gritted teeth. I tried a few things (parallel inland street, lower profile) but not much seemed to help.

Eventually it rejoined the N-340a and I was able to make good time, despite the headwind. Had a bit of excitement at a roundabout, where I followed the direction to N-340 and discovered that it was basically a motorway, there’s quite a difference between that and N-340a! Fortunately I figured out the problem before I’d gone too far and was able to get back safely.

After another two hours I got to Sitges. This is a nice little town a bit south of Barcelona, it’s a great place to visit by train. On the map I could see the route from here was a winding path near the sea; I had assumed it was maybe a hiking path or gravel track…

It’s actually route C31, which is not for the faint of heart. It’s a two lane road to Barcelona, but there’s not enough space for a cyclelane so traffic tends to pile up behind cyclists. And it’s hilly. Grinding up a hill with a queue building up behind you is not fun; when that happened I’d try to find a safe spot to pull over and wave the traffic through - I got a few thank-you waves and honks, this seems to be unusual! There were many other cyclists on the route as well, often with sizable queues behind them. The best was a gent coming the other way on a bicycle with his girlfriend/wife on the front; they were very happy to be there and we waved enthusiastically at each other. But there was a monster of a queue behind him, it probably took ten minutes to pass. I was a bit more motivated to let people through after that!

From left to right: the view was excellent. One of the many rest stops. Approaching the end. Finally in Barcelona!

So C31 was hard work: lots of climbs, and I continuously pushed because I wanted to get off it ASAP.

The final downhill came to a recently redeveloped roundabout, and Komoot squawked something ambiguous about turning left which was probably relevant before it was redone. I didn’t have time to check the map, and didn’t want to end up on the motorway so I went barreling down an exit with a sign that bikes were allowed … unfortunately it was basically more of C31, but at least it had a nice safe cyclepath this time. So I had to push for another kilometer until I could get onto a quieter street - that’s the last photo above.

Barcelona! Well, maybe. There was still about two hours (!) to go; the cyclepath followed a gently curving arc to the north. Why? Good question, wish I’d investigated last night. For now I followed it; and after C31 I was quite happy to be a bike on a cyclepath and not mix it up with traffic.

But it was slow. The cycle paths would change to the other side of the road suddenly, there were regular traffic lights, and (best of all) there were roadworks which meant the cyclepath wasn’t available at all. After seeing my estimated finish time slip, and slip, and slip I ended up finding a quiet road, rejoining the traffic and taking the direct route forward. That led to a better class of cyclepath that ran down the middle of the road and actually had other cyclists on it; so I followed their lead and made much better time.

From left to right: on a pedestrian/cycle bridge approaching Barcelona. Pablo Picasso monument. Plaça d'Espanya. Finally arrived at my destination! Me, looking a slightly the worse for wear after being on the road for 13 hours.

I finally arrived at 9, just as night was beginning to fall. I’d left just after 8 so that was 13 hours on the road. Maybe 30 minutes over the Komoot estimate, after accounting for lunch? I’m very glad it wasn’t more.

I’m staying with a friend, in their 6th floor apartment. With no lift … he kindly carried the bags while I wrestled the bike up twelve flights of narrow stairs.

I’m definitely ready for a rest day! Hopefully the next few days are quieter.

What I’m listening to: “Godspeed”, Klaus Badelt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfe-tLFqIP8
Klaus Badelt is the (co-)composer of the Pirates Of The Caribbean soundtrack: he’s credited with Hans Zimmer. This is a sole credit from the soundtrack to “The Time Machine”. I’d have linked to a song in a full playlist but the cover image is so good I didn’t want to ...